Category: Amsterdam – Netherlands

When I am riding on Dutch cycle tracks, I feel wonderful and at the same time a superior sense of dignity you don’t get riding anywhere else. As I mentioned in previous posts (1,2) on “Dutch cycle tracks to die for…”, the paved bike paths are continuous, wide, smooth and “beautifully landscaped”. The “beautifully landscaped” theme is also extended to bridges built for cyclists as well.

The Netherlands probably has the most bridges in the world because of their numerous canals and ditches. And obviously, bridges built specifically for bicycles are a common sight. These bridges are boldly designed and constructed to show appreciation to people biking- at least I’d like to think so. Almost every cycle bridge that was built in the current era that I biked upon is an art piece. When you cycle on some of these bridges, you feel as though you are in a time capsule, while others you feel like you are flying in space. And some are built so that you can enjoy the views of the city. The bridges are built with a slight incline that any unfit person can bike on.

There are also stunning bridges for cars and trains with bike paths on them, but I won’t be talking about them here because I want to point out to you how in the Netherlands, bicycling is just as important as other modes of transportation and this shows in the comparable quality of their bike infrastructure.

The Nesciobrug (Nescio Bridge) is the longest cycle bridge in the country at 779 meters long and was built in 2006 at a cost of 9.5 million euros. The suspension bridge is located in Amsterdam connecting an island suburb of Ijburg to the mainland of the city. This is a bridge you don’t want to miss if you are in Amsterdam. It’s really long and really high up.

The name of this green bridge located north of Nijmegen is accurately called “The Little Green One” or “Het Groentje” in Dutch. It is elegantly designed with an organic delicate look that to me looks like a part of a plant. It’s 120 meters long at a price tag of 4.8 million euros and was completed in 2013. The bridge helps thousands of cyclists cross a busy highway that runs beneath everyday. What’s cool about biking on this bridge is that there’s an elevated cycle track that sits approximately 4 stories high leading to another bridge that connects to “The Little Green One”. The whole experience of riding the whole thing through is quite exhilarating because you are continuously elevated.

What a marvel! A first of its kind! A floating roundabout that keeps cyclists safe away from high volume traffic. It sits on the outskirts of Eindhoven. It is called Hovenring which priced about 20 million euros and was completed in 2012. It looks like a UFO flying saucer and looks even better at night. You can enter the Hovenring from 4 different directions which is so awesome! The track on it is so wide that it can also be a playground or spot to hang out.

You can find this “Green Connection (De Groene Verbinding)” outside of Rotterdam that connects the city to a nature reserve. As you ride through this 190 meter long bridge (opened this year at a finished cost of 9.2 million euros), the shape of the bridge narrows and then widens. You feel as though you are going through a warped tunnel. Also, the LED lights which are connected to sensors come on as you approach the bridge. Very cool!

The photos here don’t capture the complexity of these structures and the experience of riding through them. Bicycle Dutch has wonderful videos on them. The videos about the bridges are below:

The day after coming back from Amsterdam, I was fortunate enough to meet author Pete Jordan at a book reading for his new book In the City of Bikes, a book about bicycling in Amsterdam. He’s an American who went to Amsterdam over a decade ago to study urban development and instantly fell in love with the city and their bicycling culture. So he expatriated there.

It was perfect timing for me to hear about his new book on bicycling in Amsterdam since I just took a trip there and there were a couple of things that I observed that I didn’t understand. Also, I wanted to learn what made Amsterdam the world’s friendliest city for people on bikes. It just boggles my mind that cycling is so prevalent in Amsterdam (and a few other cities) but everywhere else in the world is pretty much dominated by automobiles. While my experience was still fresh in my mind, the book answered my questions and in a wonderful way, it extended my vacation psychologically.

Pete Jordan, the author of ‘In the City of Bikes’ at a book reading in San Francisco.

In the City of Bikes – The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist

As you can see from the table of contents, there’s over a hundred years (started from the 1890s) worth of bicycle history in Amsterdam. The book has in-depth quotations, facts, and details for almost every important decade chronologically.

Table of Contents p.1

Table of Contents p.2

In the City of Bikes also reads like a personal memoir which I really enjoyed reading. One example is when his wife, Amy Joy becomes a bicycle mechanic and subsequently starts a bike shop. Another example is the bonding between father and son when his son Ferris sits in front of him on a bicycle playing the game Which Way?.

Mostly, the book speaks about the rich historical culture of bicycles in Amsterdam and it’s engaging. Amsterdammers had fought for their ways against anti-cyclists, Nazi occupation and confiscation of their bikes, and rampant thievery. Through it all, they still tried to implement the White Bicycles Plan in the 1960s which has inspired today’s bike-share programs around the world just as much as their utopian bicycle infrastructure.

The author also covers the story about the famous and controversial Rijksmuseum bike passageway which was recently reopened to cyclists after a decade of closure and was breaking news in the city.

If you are interested in cycling and Amsterdam cycling, both historically and culturally, then this book is for you!

One thing I would like the author to elaborate a little more on is to have more emphasis on his personal experience as an American foreigner moving to Amsterdam for the bicycle culture and also so I can relate even more closely to his passion for bicycling. Perhaps he’s saving it for his next book? I hope so.

Pete Jordan is also the author of the memoir Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States.

In parts 1 and 2 of our series on Amsterdam, we had a wheelchair bike as our vehicle of transport. After pedaling Nellie around on it for a few days, I realized that it wouldn’t be good for very long distance trips since it can get very tiring. So, we also rented an electric-assisted Bakfiets cargo bike thinking that it would be better, but realized that the power still wasn’t enough to go a long distance with an adult sitting inside. Furthermore, as you can see in the image below, the depth of the seating area is too short for an adult to sit on comfortably. I was planning on using it to go 22 miles (35 km) one way to Keukenhof Tulip Park which is about a 2 hours ride (in my case, it’s probably 3 hours), but I chickened out. Either I will become too exhausted or Nellie’s butt would be in flames, so I didn’t want to take that chance. So we had to sell out on our bike experience and rent a car just for that day.

Electric-assisted Bakfiets was too heavy for a long distance ride and has an uncomfortable seating area for an adult.

The reason why we entertained the idea of riding all the way out to the Keukenhof Tulip Park in the first place was that we had a positive experience when we we rode out to Zaanse Schans to see some Dutch windmills the other day. It was such a great experience getting out of the busy city center where the wheelchair bike was rolling on bumpy paved roads and transitioning to smooth paved roads in open and modern spaces.

When we left the city center, wow, it was bike utopia! Although we were still within the periphery of Amsterdam city, we were no longer in the old city core. The roads were smooth and separated bike paths went in every direction you would need or want to go. Amsterdam is indeed number one in bike infrastructure along with many other Dutch cities. If you want great infrastructure for cycling, one should look to the Dutch for the model. I have been to a handful of bike-friendly cities, and none of them come close to Amsterdam. The cycle tracks are very wide with wide buffers from the streets, and stretch continuously for miles, and you can get from point A to B and C without feeling unsafe. Traffic signs/signals for bicycles are everywhere and I felt that the priority of bicyclists exceeds that of motorists. Every time I was at a red traffic signal for bicycles and a button was there for me to press, it wasn’t long before the light turned green for me. One thing I noticed about how they did auto traffic calming was that on streets that have two lanes, where they become one lane, the left lane merges into the “slower” right lane. This slows traffic down as opposed to the States where cars in right lanes usually have to merge into the “faster” left lane.

The paths and sidewalks were very wide with larger brick tiles which reduced the bumpiness when rolling over them making it much more comfortable for Nellie on the wheelchair bike. The larger brick tiles alternate with large sections of smooth pavement. The paths are so wide that you can ride at least 2 abreast. This allows for conversational cycling (having a conversation with a companion while riding your bikes side by side) which makes cycling even more enjoyable. Some streets have two cycle tracks that are bi-directional. Pretty crazy, huh? How can any street that has two cycle tracks also have two way traffic? Well, just reduce car usage by increasing bike usage, so you have more room for cycle paths. Voila!

Notice the red pavement in the photo below- that is colored asphalt, not just asphalt that has been painted like what we have in San Francisco. Because it is colored asphalt instead of paint on asphalt, it is less slippery during the wet season unlike the slippery green paint on our SF bikeways.

Very wide sidewalks just outside the city center.

Cycle track sweeper out the day after it rained. No wonder their cycle tracks are spotless.

We saw tiny vehicles such as the Canta LX that are allowed on the cycle tracks and are small enough to legally park on sidewalks (I don’t even think you need a driver’s license to drive one!). They aren’t actually cars but are more like covered scooters. They can go up to 28 mph (45 km/h) and a folded wheelchair can fit in the rear. They are great for the elderly and disabled. We may rent this next time so Nellie can finally take control of the wheels. =) We also saw a handful of mobility assisted scooters on the cycle tracks as well.

Driver in the Canta car dropping off her child. Notice that it is on the cycle track and not in the street.

A newer Canta model parked on a wide sidewalk.

With 25% of the Netherlands below sea level, it just makes sense to have bikes on boats too (see photo below)- or the Dutch just really like bikes. Is it a bike tour or boat tour? Hmm…

The wizard, Gandalf and his bikes.

When we got even further out and left the city altogether, I pedaled Nellie on the wheelchair bike on this beautiful separated bike path for 14 uninterrupted miles (23 km). Well, the journey was almost uninterrupted except at one point where we took a ferry to the other side (the ferry was absolutely free!). The wide separation between the cycle tracks and streets made cycling peaceful and you were away from car exhausts. The paths were lined with trees for much of the way which added to the serene experience. That is how riding a bike should be. It was the best riding experience I ever had in my cycling career even considering I was riding on a wheelchair bike. Nellie even said that she didn’t think about her injured foot for a moment.

Wide and smooth pavement stretches for miles. Notice the wide buffer between street and cycle track.

On the way to Zaanse Schans, it was breathtaking to see these wind turbines on the sides of the cycle track. One of the main reasons why I ride is because of environmental reasons so those wind turbines really stood out to me and affected me on a personal level. We also saw many performance cyclists in their spandex and gears. It must be awesome to ride fast for hours on these very long, and “open road” bikeways.

A great combination – Wind turbines along the cycle track.

Pretty interesting buildings in Zaandam, a city north of Amsterdam.

Zaanse Schans, a cute and charming windmill village north of Zaandam.

A bike cart in Keukenhof Tulip Park selling delicious hotdogs.

On our last full day in Amsterdam, it was Queen’s Day. For most people, as a visitor or even a local, it’s wonderful to experience Queen’s Day. This Queen’s Day was especially important because Queen Beatrix abdicated her throne for her son, now King Willem-Alexander. The local population of Amsterdam is around 820,000 and on the days leading up to Queen’s Day, the population typically doubles with all the celebrators. Most of the population congregates in the city center. The entire city center is generally closed off to traffic on that particular day. So you can imagine that it was very crowded. Nellie decided to stay in for that day knowing that maneuvering for her would be very difficult, but I got out and about to observe some Dutch culture. I didn’t know that the Dutch were such partiers and loved their Queen.

Here was this girl and her father dressed for Queen’s Day. She looked very comfortable. Orange is the color of the Dutch royal family.

Happy Queen’s/King’s Day! A day when all the Amsterdammers got off their bicycles.

With 800,000 more visitors coming into the city, of course the city is already prepared to accomodate all these bikes. The ample space from the dozens of water canals makes a good place for bike parking. There were three of these boats filled with bikes on this one canal I saw. Bicycles rule in Amsterdam!

Bike parking on a boat. Clever idea!

To conclude our Amsterdam trip, it was just too difficult to maneuver around in the city center on a wheelchair bike especially during a crowded holiday. I can imagine it would be nice for those on regular bikes though because of all the historic buildings, canals, and scenery. We did enjoy every bit of the experience when we left the city center. Overall, riding a bike in the Netherlands is truly a joyful cycling experience and I could understand if anyone expatriated to the Netherlands solely for bicycling. I know of a couple of people who did.

Thank you to the Netherlands from the bottom of every cyclist’s heart for making it a great bicycling country for all of us to see and try to emulate and showing that a society built around bicycles can be achieved.

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder – Dutch Flower Still Life. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

A water canal filled with swans. How many swans can you count in this picture? Answer at the bottom of this post.

The primary way of getting around Amsterdam for Nellie was not her own two feet but our trusty wheelchair bike from StarBikes Rental as discussed in an earlier post. The wheelchair bike was very helpful, but there were two issues we had with it.

The first issue was that the ride was bumpy and uncomfortable for Nellie on the brick paved roads which are ubiquitous in Amsterdam’s old city center. She could feel every little bump and irregularly in the ground as we rolled along and because her foot was already sensitive, the shaking and sudden jerks would hurt her foot. Whenever we hit a bump or dip, she had to be sure to lift her foot in time so as to soften the impact, but it was still unpleasant and tiresome for her. I had to ride very slowly and carefully trying to avoid potential problem areas. The rocky ride could’ve been due in large part to the skinniness of the wheelchair tires. I think they should have used fat tires for the wheels like those seen on Dutch bikes to better absorb shocks. The bumpiness may not be such a big issue for other wheelchair bike users if they don’t have any aches and pains on their body and can tolerate a little shaking.

The second issue was that when it rained, Nellie’s legs and feet got wet. The wheels do not have fenders and it is hard to cover the legs and feet when it rains. Nellie used an umbrella but it didn’t reach her legs and the umbrella kind of blocked my view as I was pedaling. Also, my legs would have gotten wet too if I hadn’t worn rain pants. If you’re going to use a wheelchair bike when there is a good chance of rain, which the Netherlands has plenty of, be sure the wheelchair rider is at least wearing waterproof footwear and waterproof pants. It can get pretty cold once the pants get wet. There is also a waterproof cover for the legs that comes with the wheelchair bike but we didn’t bring it with us. It didn’t look inviting to us to use it for some reason.

Wheelchair when detached from the wheelchair bike.

Amsterdam’s old city center is not made for people with a disability, particularly people with limited mobility. We stayed in Nieuwmarkt square in the city center which is about 800 years old. When a place is that old, the buildings and its infrastructure are not going to be conducive for people on wheelchairs. Apparently, wheelchairs didn’t exist back then and of course, the Dutch have done a good job in preserving the original historic look of the place. So, the town has narrow sidewalks which often get crowded and force people to walk in the streets (see photo below). Also, shops and stores have very narrow doorways that wheelchairs can’t fit through and often have steps instead of a ramp. The small brick pavement on both the streets and sidewalks makes it harder to roll a wheelchair around.

Narrow sidewalks force pedestrians to walk in the streets.

Not only are the sidewalks too narrow to push a wheelchair on, but you also have bicycles, scooters and even cars parking on them creating a veritable obstacle course. If you take the narrow street which only fits one car’s width, you would have to maneuver to the side whenever cars drive through which happens occasionally. Rolling a wheelchair back onto the sidewalk is difficult because on-ramp curbs are not placed throughout. There are some streets that are level with the sidewalk but they are not that common. I think Amsterdam’s urban planning officials should look into restricting private car access (taxis and delivery vehicles are okay) into these small city center streets using a filtered permeability design like how Strasbourg in France has in their city center. I did see that they restricted car access on some streets at certain times of the day but I don’t think that’s enough. Not only is this better for wheelchair users, but it creates a less chaotic environment for regular bicyclists and pedestrians which crowd the city center. Closing down the old city center to cars is actually a very common thing many European cities do which Amsterdam surprisingly has not done.

Cars, scooters and bikes park on sidewalks.

In addition, we noticed gas-powered mopeds using the same cycle tracks as bikes. They are fast, loud, and smelly and we didn’t like them one bit. We thought they were quite menacing and have heard that there are many locals who think so too. Many of them seemed to be going faster than the 20 mph (30 km/h) posted speed limit and we’ve heard that many of them have had their speed restrictor removed. Not only do they speed but they also make a loud racket and from their 2 stroke engines, leave a plume of noxious and unpleasant fumes in their wake. Often one would come zooming by suddenly and it would scare the bejesus out of Nellie, she almost got up and started walking. In the States, we have to deal with absurd and narrow bike lanes (or the lack thereof) that bring us in closer proximity to fast moving cars and plentiful opportunities for car-dooring. So I know that as a cyclist, I would definitely get annoyed by them if they were riding on cycle tracks here. According to Bicycle Dutch, there has been an increase by 3 fold in the number of mopeds on cycle tracks in the past five years in Amsterdam and 94% of them speed. I heard from Pete Jordan and Amsterdamize that Amsterdam is working on legislation to ban mopeds from cycle tracks.

Moped around children cycling. Dangerous! Image courtesy of Bicycle Dutch

So far, it probably sounds like the bike ride in the city center was a lot of trouble especially for Nellie, but there were many positive highlights. One thing which brought a smile to Nellie’s face was enjoying some goodies from the Dutch fast food chain FEBO. We recognized FEBO from Anthony Bourdain’s Layover show, so we decided to give it a try. They make great biking food because of their convenient grab and go vending machines. You simply walk up to the food of your choice displayed inside the vending machine, insert your coins into the slot, and then open the door and grab your food. Despite it being a fast food chain, the quality of their food was actually pretty good and blows McDonald’s away. They have all these hot and tasty croquettes filled with different stuffings like beef and curry, burgers and chicken sandwiches. They were delicious. No cashier to deal with. Just your hungry stomach and the machine. It was one of our most favorite things to eat there.

Nellie on a wheel-chair bike at FEBO (a Dutch fastfood chain) waiting for it to open.

Another thing we noticed on a positive note was that there was a certain fluidity to the way cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists maneuver around each other at intersections within the city center. See the video below. We observed that there were no stop signs so everyone whether they were in a car, on foot, or on bike would yield to one another and they had to share the road. They did all this without making a fuss. This sort of set up would never happen in the States. If you were to ride on the sidewalk, pedestrians would bark at you. If you were to ride in the car lane, motorists would honk at you to get off the road. But in Amsterdam, I noticed that this system of common sense and courtesy between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists actually seems to work. This civil behavior is probably a result of the understanding they have for one another because they all have experience riding bikes as a means of transport.

Now I want to talk about how wonderful the cycling experience is outside of the town center. Even though it was a challenge biking with the wheelchair bike in the middle of old Amsterdam, biking outside the city center was utopia. In the city center, the streets and buildings are historic and like I mentioned earlier, the streets there are not so conducive for wheelchairs. Not only are they paved with bricks but they are also congested, filled with tourists (lots of tourists because it was just days before Queen’s Day, a huge national holiday and the historic abdication of Queen Beatrix), and the area can get pretty chaotic. But when you go further out, you find that the spaces open up and become more organized. That is where the true quality of the cycling infrastructure in Amsterdam becomes apparent.

How great is the cycling infrastructure in Amsterdam you might ask? Just look at the photos below. I randomly took this photo and to my surprise I caught every gender and age group in one shot at a traffic signal. That is a sign that the cycling there is comfortable for everybody, ages 8 to 80.

Typical demographics of people on bicycles with mopeds and cars in Amsterdam.

Cycling on Amsterdam’s paths are so safe that a mom, dad and child are not wearing helmets and riding together on a single bike. How delightful is that?!

Mom, dad, and a child on two wheels.

Because the cycle tracks are away from cars, this man can take his time riding his heavy workcycle.

Pots and plants on his workcycle.

I will end here about our wheelchair-biking experience within Amsterdam and will cover more of our experience when we journeyed outside of Amsterdam city in our next post. Stay tuned!